A New Day: Australia to Austria
It feels a little strange to be making a fresh entry on this blog given the holiday has now long been over and I'm not with Matt, yet here I am posting and yes it's because I'm on my travels again. Sadly it's nowhere near as glamorous as the previous holiday, in fact I shouldn't be referring to it as a holiday at all, this is pure unadulterated work and I'm not moving about at all, it's 3 weeks in Vienna.
So an early start for me on Monday and I'm off to Heathrow again, this time to the brand spanking new Terminal 5. It's impressive, it really is, but I can't help worrying whether my bag is going to make the journey with me. I am in complete awe of an Audi R8 that is on display, until now I'd only seen it on the TV ad, in the flesh I love it, I'm not even a car-sy person normally but I love this vehicle so much, I'm convinced into buying some expensive raffle tickets to win it! I know I'm being a fool but I simply can't resist.
A minor delay and it's a pretty event less flight, at Vienna airport I'm pleased to see my bag has made it and as a bonus is one of the first off, others on our journey have not been so fortunate. It seems the last load of luggage due on our flight decided on a different destination. A quick transfer to the hotel and then we're off for inductions at work. It turns out the hotel is slap bang in the middle of the red light district of Vienna, while it has been chosen for it's proximity to work, it doesn't feel like a particularly safe place to be out on your own and we're already hearing stories of people from work getting mugged.
The obligatories out the way and we all meet back at the hotel for drinks and food. The emphasis is very much on the drinking, I think everyone has forgotten it's Monday night and that we have training at 9:30am the following morning. Still it's a great night and everyone is in high spirits, I'm bizarrely hungry and have five courses at the restaurant, everyone else settles for 1! The proprietor is very friendly and perhaps a little keen to get our Euros, nevertheless he brings a bottle of Sambuca to our table and leaves it, well it's free and frankly I think we'd offend him if we didn't, so we did.
Much frivolity later (including bouncing up and down on my producers knee) and we return to the hotel, it's nearly 2am, I'm really hoping we can stop and go to bed now, it seems everyone else has different ideas. I'm not actually sure what time I finally made it to bed, but I spent the night in panic constantly waking up fearing I was going to oversleep for work in the morning and thus felt even worse this morning thanks to the lack of sleep. Still at breakfast I seem to have got off lightly compared with some people, a very rough producer sits at our table and has us in stitches as he confesses he didn't actually make it to bed last night, he passed out in the doorway to his room, his legs in the corridor and his head in the bathroom, I feel much better!
Our training today is run by a guy who starts off badly and doesn't really improve, with all the best will in the world instructing people is not really his forte and we're left to try and read between the lines. If I'm being optimistic I think he is probably over-complicating something that's actually not too difficult, the other editors have used this system, I have not, maybe I should be nervous about this unfortunately this hangover is vying for my attention at the moment. At lunch time I did discover this lovely gem of a shop that made me laugh:
So I've not said too much about Vienna as a city yet, the truth is I've seen very little of it and my suspicions are that we're not in a nice part, still I don't want to cast judgment until I've explored a little further. Our security passes for this event grant us free 1st class land travel all over Austria and Switzerland until mid July, plus it seems we are actually going to get some days off so I may have chance to explore, I will keep you posted.
Anyway it's late and I've wittered on enough for now, should you be interested in reading anymore about my journey then please check out my personal blog which is:
gaylordssayno.blogspot.com
where I'll be keeping occasional notes on work & wellbeing. For now ta ta dear reader! x
So an early start for me on Monday and I'm off to Heathrow again, this time to the brand spanking new Terminal 5. It's impressive, it really is, but I can't help worrying whether my bag is going to make the journey with me. I am in complete awe of an Audi R8 that is on display, until now I'd only seen it on the TV ad, in the flesh I love it, I'm not even a car-sy person normally but I love this vehicle so much, I'm convinced into buying some expensive raffle tickets to win it! I know I'm being a fool but I simply can't resist.
A minor delay and it's a pretty event less flight, at Vienna airport I'm pleased to see my bag has made it and as a bonus is one of the first off, others on our journey have not been so fortunate. It seems the last load of luggage due on our flight decided on a different destination. A quick transfer to the hotel and then we're off for inductions at work. It turns out the hotel is slap bang in the middle of the red light district of Vienna, while it has been chosen for it's proximity to work, it doesn't feel like a particularly safe place to be out on your own and we're already hearing stories of people from work getting mugged.The obligatories out the way and we all meet back at the hotel for drinks and food. The emphasis is very much on the drinking, I think everyone has forgotten it's Monday night and that we have training at 9:30am the following morning. Still it's a great night and everyone is in high spirits, I'm bizarrely hungry and have five courses at the restaurant, everyone else settles for 1! The proprietor is very friendly and perhaps a little keen to get our Euros, nevertheless he brings a bottle of Sambuca to our table and leaves it, well it's free and frankly I think we'd offend him if we didn't, so we did.
Much frivolity later (including bouncing up and down on my producers knee) and we return to the hotel, it's nearly 2am, I'm really hoping we can stop and go to bed now, it seems everyone else has different ideas. I'm not actually sure what time I finally made it to bed, but I spent the night in panic constantly waking up fearing I was going to oversleep for work in the morning and thus felt even worse this morning thanks to the lack of sleep. Still at breakfast I seem to have got off lightly compared with some people, a very rough producer sits at our table and has us in stitches as he confesses he didn't actually make it to bed last night, he passed out in the doorway to his room, his legs in the corridor and his head in the bathroom, I feel much better!
Our training today is run by a guy who starts off badly and doesn't really improve, with all the best will in the world instructing people is not really his forte and we're left to try and read between the lines. If I'm being optimistic I think he is probably over-complicating something that's actually not too difficult, the other editors have used this system, I have not, maybe I should be nervous about this unfortunately this hangover is vying for my attention at the moment. At lunch time I did discover this lovely gem of a shop that made me laugh:
So I've not said too much about Vienna as a city yet, the truth is I've seen very little of it and my suspicions are that we're not in a nice part, still I don't want to cast judgment until I've explored a little further. Our security passes for this event grant us free 1st class land travel all over Austria and Switzerland until mid July, plus it seems we are actually going to get some days off so I may have chance to explore, I will keep you posted.
Anyway it's late and I've wittered on enough for now, should you be interested in reading anymore about my journey then please check out my personal blog which is:
gaylordssayno.blogspot.com
where I'll be keeping occasional notes on work & wellbeing. For now ta ta dear reader! x
